A Thousand Suns
by Lordoftheghostking28
Summary: Mark and Monica return to Mobius when a long-ago threat arises again. Will they put an end to the threat...and the person responsible for all this?
1. Chapter 1

** GhostKing here, telling you this stuff before the real story. I OWN NO ONE EXCEPT MAH OCs. Which would be Ice, Mark and Monica, and whoever else you don't recognize. Ok? For about who sings the song, it's called The Catalyst … it's Linkin Park, the best band EVAAAH. Anyway, that's enough of my ramblings. You're probably gonna want to read now. Here we go, Chapter Uno**…

**XxXxXxXx**

**MONICA**

_God save us everyone,_

_When we burn in the fires_

_Of a thousand suns,_

_For the sins of our hand,_

_The sins of our tongue,_

_The sins of our fathers,_

_The sins of our young…_

For a while I've been crazy about this song. I love songs with meaning, and this entire album has been absolutely awesome. Unfortunately, Mark thinks otherwise.

"Monica! Turn that down!" He yelled from the computer, where he was playing some sort of first-person zombie shooting.

I turned the volume down on the speakers by one notch. Not a very big difference, but he seemed to think it was. I glanced at the back of his head and wondered where the years of our lives were disappearing to.

We were both sixteen now, and still twins. Bummer. Mark had grown about six feet so he now towered over me (He was really proud of that) and weighed about as much as a twig. The kid was really underweight...But even though he had grown a ton, he still had the same 13-year old face from so long ago. No chance of sprouting a beard for some time. To make up for the loss of facial hair, he began to grow his hair on his head down past his ears. I thought he looked a bit like Justin Bieber.

If Mark was just getting lamer and lamer, then I was the complete opposite. Over the last two years, my face had changed from the kid to the young woman. I had a sort of intoxicating effect on boys, even though I hated all of them and never wore any makeup. I kept my blondish brown hair back in a long ponytail. Overall, I was almost a completely different person.

But one thing that hadn't changed over the years was our parents. Description wise, they were still the same, save a few streaks of gray in their hair. But sense our last adventure, they had hardly let us out of their sight. Sometimes I really began to get annoyed by that.

_To save face,_

_How low can you go?_

_Talk a lot of game_

_And yet you don't know._

_Static on the way_

_Make us all say "Whoa!"_

_The people on top push the people_

_Down low._

_Get down,_

_And obey every word._

_S-_

"MONICA!" Mark shouted. "I'm shooting zombies! Keep it down! The fate of the world rests on my shoulders!"

"Yeah, sure." I smiled, turning off the computer monitor.

Mark sat there, shock written all over his face. "What the freaking heck?"

"_This_ is the freaking heck." I whacked him with a pillow.

"I'm gonna kill you!" Mark laughed, grabbing another pillow as I ran out of the room.

We eventually ran into our parents downstairs and we got into an all-out pillow fight. It was rather fierce. My dad almost fell out the window.

Eventually we all collapsed on the ground, laughing and nursing multiple bruises and cuts from running into things.

"I never saw that coming." My mom laughed.

"Me neither." I admitted.

"Well, then. I'm going to make dinner." My dad said, going into the kitchen. "Italian tonight!"

"Yes! My favorite!" Mark and I shouted at the same time, pumping our fists into the air.

** XxXxXxXx**

Meanwhile, on Mobius, something sinister was at hand.

"Why…why are they killing us?" Blaze asked in a daze. "Where did they even come from?"

She watched from her perch high in a tree as a group of people in white lab coats stormed a small building. A loud scream emitted from it. Blaze turned away and tried to make out the faces of the people in the opposite direction.

One caught her eye.

It was the man that Monica had sentenced twenty years to jail two years ago. Back before the portal never opened again. But here were intruders, obviously not native to the planet.

The portal was opening again.

But why?

Blaze jumped out of the tree and kept to the shadows as she made her way away from the building and the other people. If they could find out why it was opening again, they could once again meet up with Mark and Monica…and once again save their worlds together.

Blaze was just about to reach the main road when they spotted her.

** XxXxXxXx**

** MARK**

I woke up that night from a terrible dream. Most of it had to be from all the zombie shooting earlier that day. But there was one part of the dream that made me worry…

"You're up, too?" Monica's voice from above took me by surprise.

"Nightmares," I muttered. "you?"

"I don't know." Monica turned over in her bunk so she was staring at me upside-down. "But I've got this weird feeling…"

"I guess that's how you'd put it." I responded.

"I think your dream was just from all that zombie killing earlier today." I didn't need light to tell that she was smiling. We knew each other too well.

"That doesn't explain your bad feeling." I retorted.

"It could just be our awesomely awesome twin psychic connection." She said sarcastically.

"Now you're sounding like Silver," I said. "maybe we're both just thinking about what happened about three years ago."

Monica grew silent. That was very unlike her, but people who knew her well would know she was deep in thought. Finally she asked, "What was your dream about?"

"Fire," I nearly whispered. "everywhere."

Monica just about fell out of her bunk. "You're joking. That was what I was dreaming about."

"A house went up in flames to begin with…" I started.

"…I saw someone dying…" Monica continued.

"…the fire took a shape…"

"…and then it lunged at me…"

"Us, Mark. _Us._"

A moment of silence. Both Monica and I had had the same dream. Although this wasn't the first time, it was by far the most scary. Monica was terrified of fire ever since the lab burned down and she was nearly killed. I, too, had developed a phobia of the thing, although it wasn't as severe. Monica won't even let our parents light a fire in the fireplace.

"What do you think it means?" Monica asked.

"It think it means it's time to play Stage Five: Level Two again." I said.

"We've tried that so many times I lost count! I swear I could play that stage with my eyes shut and win fifty times over!" Monica protested.

"We've got to try." I said. "Just for a while. If nothing happens we can go play Black Ops."

"I still find it weird that we own every Sonic game for the Wii/GameCube...and then we have Black Ops. What a nice combination." Monica snickered.

"Go away. I was sleeping before you started talking to me." I grumbled.

"Whatever." Monica said.

**XxXxXxXx**

Even though we owned Black Ops, nothing had ever happened before. Like, say, for example: We go into the freaking game.

Perhaps that was a good thing.

"Monica! Zombie at eight o'clock!" I warned, firing the last of my ammo at an oncoming zombie. I began knifing them next.

"Nice catch, Mark," Monica's eyes were narrowed on the current fight in front of us. She wasn't one to go down easily, as I've found out over the years.

We began our Saturday morning by playing Black Ops. Even though we agreed last night to play Sonic games first. Oh well. We're sixteen. What do you expect?

"Aw, crap." Monica announced a bit later when our defenses were beginning to fall. "Stupid fast zombie…"

So after that delightful game of zombie massacre we switched games.

"Here, I'll prove to you that I can play through this stage with my eyes shut." Monica said.

And she did. It was rather impressive. But literally as soon as she completed the level I heard something from upstairs. Mom and Dad couldn't possibly be back yet… could they? Mom was off at friend's house and Dad was at work.

"What was that?" Monica heard it too. She put the game to the menu and headed for the stairs. "Mom? Dad?"

A muffled thump answered her. Without waiting for me to say anything, she ran up the steps. I followed, hoping that we didn't accidently play any zombies out of Black Ops and they were now overrunning the neighborhood.

No one was in the living room. All clear there. No one in the kitchen. Monica crossed over to one of the drawers in the kitchen and drew out a long knife. "Just in case." She whispered, glancing nervously towards the last room on the first level.

We entered into the room at the same time, ready for action. Who we saw made Monica drop her weapon with a loud clatter, causing the 'intruder' to jump and fall against the wall.

I left Monica's side and ran to Shadow's. He seemed disoriented and on edge and jumped back from me. "Who are you? Where am I?"

"Shadow, it's us! Mark and Monica!" I said. "What's going on? Why are you here?"

Shadow blinked hard. "…Mark?"

"What's going on?" Monica asked.

"Monica…that scientist that tried to kill us…he's on Mobius."

I thought Monica would collapse. Instead she quickly sank into the nearest chair. "You mean that guy I called Ice?"

"Him and his Nanobots,"

This time _I_ nearly fell. "How? How did he get to your world? What's going on here?"

The Nanobots were what I hoped to be just a thing of the past. Last time we met up with Sonic and the gang they were framed for kidnapping us when really we joined together to find Eggman before something… bad… happened. But, as usual, the bad thing happened anyway. The leader of a cruel band of scientists—who Monica nicknamed Ice on account of his eyes and not knowing his real name—nearly killed Silver in an experiment involving something called Nanobots; robots that were so tiny a red blood cell would appear as big as the world is to us. Once injected into a living organism's blood stream, the Nanobots would flock to the most vital organs in its body; the heart and brain. The ones in the brain would delete or alter any memory the injector wishes to tamper with. The ones around the heart were only there for a last resort; if the controlled organism resists, the Nanobots would eat through its heart, killing it instantly. They would either be forced to act as slaves to a more-than-likely deathly cause or die themselves. After Monica saved Silver from Ice, she returned to the lab to help save the others along with mark, but Ice locked her and Shadow into the burning lab. They just barely escaped alive.

"Nothing good. He…he got Blaze," Shadow nearly whispered. "and me."

"Oh no…" Monica was so pale I thought I was looking at a ghost. "How did you get here, then?"

"I had at the most ten seconds to grab an Emerald and escape here after he injected me. But now…if he tells me to do anything…I'll be forced to do it. As long as I'm away from him I'm… not effected." Shadow explained.

"What about Blaze?" I asked barely loud enough to hear.

"I don't know." Shadow whispered.

"The others?"

"Safe, for the moment."

"What about your entire world?"

"…"

"This isn't good."

"We have to go back there." Monica spoke up. "We have to stop Ice. A menace like him should never be around anyone or anything alive."

"I don't know if I'll be able to take you with me." Shadow said. "I only have one Emerald."

"Well, it's gonna have to do," I decided. "we're going with you."

** XxXxXxXx**

"What I don't understand is how they've gotten so many of us already." Tails whispered. He and Sonic were perched up in a tall tree, witnessing the horror below.

"It's because they got just _one_ of us…and look what happened. But I do know what we can do for the time being. We need to warn Silver and Knuckles before Blaze reaches them first." Sonic began jumping to lower branches. "Tails, hurry. We weren't exacally concealed anyway."

Tails nodded worriedly, but he began following. In the distance he vaguely made out a cloud of smoke…

** XxXxXxXx**

** MONICA**

I grabbed a small pocketknife and stowed it in my side pocket. I hoped I wouldn't be able to use it, but then again…

"Ready?" Mark asked. As far as I knew, he didn't seem like he was bringing anything.

"As ready as I'll ever be." I answered with a nervous smile. I turned to Shadow, who was waiting impatiently for us by the door.

"Let's go!" Mark said. He seemed a bit too excited about the whole thing…must be all that zombie shooting he did earlier.

"Be prepared for anything," Shadow warned, holding the yellow Chaos Emerald out in front of him. "and I mean anything."

Both Mark and I nodded. We've been through some pretty scary times. We should be able to escape this and finally bring Ice to justice.

"CHAOS CONTROL!"

A bright flash of light engulfed us. I shut my eyes tight, and when I opened them I found myself in a semi-dark room. A quick glance around told me that we were in danger.

"MARK!" I grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the reach of a nearby scientist. We backed up against the wall with nowhere to run.

"Perfect. Good work, Shadow."

I recognized the voice only too well. I clenched my fists, hoping for a chance to strike at Ice's smug face. He walked up next to Shadow and seemed to stare into my soul.

"As you probably know by now, Shadow didn't go to your world out of his own free will. The Nanobots are so strong they can still be controlled even when we're on separate planets. I specifically wanted you two here to witness the change." Ice's smile got even more smug, if that was possible. I wanted more than ever to rush forward and knock him into next week.

"Now I know what to expect when people say expect the unexpected." Mark muttered.

"Don't talk." One of Ice's nerdy minions commanded.

"So…why do you want us, exacally?" I asked innocently. "Because if I remember correctly, you tried to kill me in a fire."

"Because," Ice laughed coldly. It sent shivers down my spine. "because _you_ started this invasion, Monica. You and Mark. Didn't they, Shadow?"

The expression on Shadow's face took me by surprise. It was one of pure hatred and resent. If I could back up any more, I would have.

"You will die for what you've done," He hissed, taking a few steps forward towards us. "you killed Maria."

"We…what? No!" Mark squeaked.

"Destroy them, Shadow." Ice commanded. He and his group of scientists backed out of the room. There was an electronic click and we were left to face our friend.

My hand fell onto the small knife in my pocket. Even if I didn't use it, it was still good for threatening. I drew it out and angled it so it caught the dim light. "Don't make me hurt you."

Shadow laughed and pulled the Chaos Emerald out of his quills. "What's a puny blade going to do to me?"

"Probably a lot. Monica's holding it." Mark said unhelpfully.

I got into a fencing stance. One of my main strengths in combat was close hand-to-hand. Give me a sword or knife and I'm almost unstoppable. But then again…I've never fought my angry Chaos controlling friend.

"Check the doors, Mark." I hissed, taking a few steps towards my opponent. I saw Mark nod out of the corner of my eye and leave.

"Shadow, listen to me." I started. "We didn't start this invasion. It was Ice. You're being controlled by the Nanobots. Snap out of it. Remember all we went through together?"

For a brief moment I thought I saw a glimmer of remembrance in his eyes, but it was gone just as soon as it appeared, replaced by hatred again. He took a few more steps toward me and I held the knife so if I felt like lunging, I would stab him through his head. "Remember? Earth! We escaped into the woods with everyone else!"

Was that a flicker of doubt?

"You lie," he finally said. "that never happened."

"It did." I insisted. "It really, truly did happen."

"They're all locked, Monica." Mark squeaked from across the room.

I figured the only chance of us surviving would be to knock the Chaos Emerald from Shadow's hand. And I had to do it before he started attacking us with it. This was going to be fun…

I lunged to the left, throwing him of guard but not enough to get him to drop the Emerald. Shadow jumped backwards and raised the gem and shouted, "Chaos, Con-"

Mark ran at him from behind and managed to shove him into the wall. The yellow Emerald bounced twice and rolled towards me. I shot towards it and scooped it up, feeling an odd energy course through my arm and throughout my entire body. It was powerful. I felt like I could blow this entire room to bits.

Shadow thrust his elbow into Mark's stomach, knocking the wind out of my brother and causing him to double up with pain. The action made rage flare up in my heart and I clutched the Emerald in my hand and shouted, "Chaos Spear!"

Twin bolts of energy shot out of my hand and hit the door behind Shadow, just barely missing his head. The door burst open and alarms began to blare. I saw two people running down the hall, screaming.

A genuine look of shock was plastered to Shadow's face. But I didn't give him a chance to say anything. A Chaos Spear to the chest sent him crashing in a corner, unconscious. I grabbed Mark's arm and hauled him to his feet.

"Monica, let go of the Emerald!" He grabbed the Emerald from me and stowed it in his sweater's pocket. Instantly, the rage and power I felt disappeared, leaving me feeling…normal again.

"How did I do that?" I wondered out loud. "I've held the Emeralds before…why didn't that happen then?"

"No time for that now! We need to get out of here!" Mark recovered enough to bolt towards the door. I glanced back at Shadow, but there was nothing we could do at the moment. I turned to follow my brother.

**XxXxXxXx**

Tails found the others on top of a tall building. He quickly landed and was instantly greeted by Knuckles, who looked about ready to knock him off back into the skies.

"They didn't get me, I swear!" Tails squeaked. "I couldn't find anyone else. They're all hidden away."

"So as far as we know, you, Knuckles, Sonic and I are the only ones not taken over by Ice?" Silver took a pair of binoculars and searched the horizon. "More fires. I hope Blaze and Shadow are ok…"

"I can't guarantee they are." Sonic muttered from where he was leaning against a generator. "Knowing Ice for that brief time…he seemed like he actually knew what he was doing."

"Unfortunately," Knuckles sighed.

The four of them didn't speak for a long time until Silver said quite loudly, "I see someone! Wait…two people! They're heading this direction!"

"Get ready." Sonic was standing in a flash. "We might have to fight."

"Wait…" Silver said. "I don't think we have to worry about fighting…"

"What do you mean?" Tails asked.

"I mean that those two people might be able to help us!" And with that, he literally threw the binoculars in the air and flew towards the distance.

"Is he crazy?" Knuckles demanded.

"Hard telling." Sonic muttered. "Come on. He might need backup."

** XxXxXxXx**

** MARK**

It wasn't very hard getting out of the base/lab thing. Just a few turns, up a few flights, fight off a few guards…and we were seeing sunlight again. But something didn't seem right about this place…

"Do you sense that?" Monica whispered, taking in our surroundings. "There's an intense evil around…"

"I see something." I said. "In the distance. Is that fire?"

"The evil is there." Monica said. She seemed distracted. "I have so many questions now. I don't know which ones I want answered first."

"We'll start with how you can control the power of the Chaos Emeralds." I said. "We'll work our way off from there. Which direction now?"

"That way," Monica pointed away from the fire. "it's safest…for now."

And on that happy note, we continued forward. I wondered how exacally Monica could use the power of the Emeralds while we walked. Was it from the power that saved her…it passed on some energy to her and she just adapted it? So many questions, so few answers.

For example: What the heck is making a beeline towards us?

"Um…" I muttered. "Should we run?"

"Running sounds good." Monica agreed. We turned left and began running as fast as we could.

But before we could get very far Monica muttered something along the lines of, "OUCH!" and she hit the ground hard. I spun around, ready to attack, to see someone I thought I'd never see again.

"Monica! Monica! You're back! This is great!" Silver squealed. He had apparently tacked Monica to the ground in a huge hug and he looked about ready to cry with happiness.

"Yeah, I'm back," Monica muttered, her face buried in the grass, muffling her words. "and I sort of want some answers."

"I really missed you!"

"We've established that."

"Why is Ice here? I thought we got rid of him! I don't like that guy!"

"That's what we're trying to figure out."

"Monica?"

"Yeah?" Monica sounded annoyed.

"Are you gonna stay until we get rid of him?"

"Of course. Silver?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you ever gonna let me up?"

I began laughing, but quickly shut up with Monica shot me a death glare. She got up, brushing dirt and grass off her shirt. But Silver had sent her skidding across the ground, so her red shirt had green grass stains on it.

"You look like Christmas." I snickered.

"Can it; you baby faced, thirty-foot-tall, clumsy giant."

I felt some heat rising in my cheeks, but my attention was drawn away from that fact when I heard the yell of, "Silver, that the heck were you thinking-MONICA! MARK!"

I turned to see Tails land from flying and rush over towards us, closely followed by Knuckles and Sonic, both of whom looked equally surprised.

"How did you get here?" Knuckles asked.

"Shadow." Monica muttered. "He came for us…but he had been injected with the Nanobots…we were almost killed."

"Blaze was too." Sonic said.

"So we've heard."

There was an awkward pause that lasted a whole of thirty seconds, broken by Tails' observation: "We should go back to the building because we're really exposed out here. I don't want anyone else to get captured by Ice."

"So you don't know his real name either?" I asked.

"Never heard it." Silver piped up. "Although I wouldn't be surprised if his name really _was_ Ice."

We came to a huge building after about twenty five minuets of walking. Tails pointed to a small door and we entered that way to get up to the roof. From up there we discovered their makeshift camp. A few small tents were nestled against and between generators, providing hidden shelter if it was needed. There was a small box that was full of canned goods and a few extra blankets and pillows. We had it made up here.

"I'm guessing you want to know what's been happening around here lately." Sonic said. "This place's changed a lot since you were here."

"I believe it." I said.

"You see those fires?" Knuckles pointed in the distance, where more smoke was rising into the sky. "They've been popping up all over, mostly from the Flames. Last time you were here…this was going on but it hadn't spread over where we were yet. Now nearly half the planet is destroyed thanks to this."

"And to make matters worse there's a really creepy fire demon thing." Silver said, digging through the box of food. "Ooooh, hey! Peaches!"

Knuckles rolled his eyes and continued. "Like he said, there's a 'creepy fire demon thing.' This _thing_ has a name, and it's been the one to blame for the fires. It's literally splitting the world apart."

I saw Monica cast a nervous glance at the fires that could be seen. I could only imagine what she was going though. First the lab…and now a whole planet being consumed by fire.

"It's called Iblis." She whispered.

"How did you know?" Silver asked. "Did Shadow tell you about him?"

"I…I just…_know_." Monica said. "I don't know how or why. I just know."

"Sixth sense?"

"I'm not sure."

"Monica's been able to control the Chaos power of the Emeralds." I interjected. "Earlier today…Shadow attacked us, thinking we were to blame for the Nanobots. She managed to get ahold of the Emerald and use its power, but it was like it was trying to take control of her."

There was a moment of silence. I thought I could hear the burning in the distance.

"It's got to be from when Shadow revived her from the smoke." Tails said at last. "He gave her an Emerald to give her strength to live…it must have passed some power onto her. She might not be able to control a fraction of the power that Sonic, Silver or Shadow can control, but still. She can probably use complete Chaos attacks too."

"I knew it." I said proudly.

"But she's got to be careful or else the power can take control of _her_."

"That's why I'm holding onto the Emerald." I pulled it out of my pocket. "I can't feel any power or do anything with it, but sometimes it tells me things."

"What kind of things?" Silver asked.

I gave him a creepy smile. "_Evil_ things…"

"Stop it, Mark." Monica hissed as Silver's eyes got wide and scared.

"I'm kidding." I laughed. Silver looked relieved, but still a little spooked. "When we were in the lab…I could sense it telling me things, even guiding me. Monica could too."

"Weird. Most people can't use the Emeralds even like that." Knuckles muttered, mostly to himself. "Well, one thing's for sure, you two are a great addition to our side."

"Anything else about this place?" Monica asked, glancing behind her at the fires in the distance again. "Anyone or anything we need to watch out for?"

"Watch out for fire, Iblis, Ice, those dumb scientists, Nanobots, anyone injected with the Nanobots; which would be Blaze and Shadow and a whole lot of others, and probably Eggman. But we haven't heard from him in a long time." Tails said.

"Right. Got it." I said. "So what's our plan?"

"Right now…it's to survive." Sonic said. "We were taken by surprise by the fires and Ice; and Blaze was our main plan-maker."

"You're pathetic." Monica sighed. "Blaze didn't make every plan, did she?"

"Well…" Knuckles thought for a while.

"There was that one time when we planned a sneak attack on Shadow without her…" Sonic snickered.

"Yeah, but you ruined that." Tails rolled his eyes.

"That plan wasn't really thought out!" Sonic protested.

"Yes, it was. You just couldn't shut up." Silver said.

Monica facepalmed.

"Ok, for right now the plan is to survive _until_ we come up with a plan. Sound good to everyone? Good." I decided.

"You're an even worse planner than Knuckles." Sonic cracked up.

"At least I don't snort in_ complete silence_, unlike someone I know." Knuckles retorted.

"This is hopeless." Monica sighed.

"You're telling me." I snickered.

** XxXxXxXx**

"How could you let them escape?"

"The girl…Monica…she can use Chaos power too."

Ice stopped directly in front of Shadow and stared down at him with his daggerlike eyes. "I commanded you to destroy them, and you didn't."

"I couldn't stop them."

"You can't stop this either," Ice hissed. "you're going to feel the worst pain you've ever felt."

This was what most of the scientists called 'phantom pain.' No harm was done to the victim's body physically. It was all in their head, caused by the Nanobots. But it sure seemed real, judging by the violent reactions. Shadow screamed and dropped to the ground, curling into a small ball, trying to block out the agony.

"Stop," Ice said harshly and clearly. Shadow relaxed slightly as the Nanobots released him from the pain, but he knew there'd be more.

"You will not let them escape again. If you fail…" Ice trailed off. "You want to avenge those who died right?" he said instead.

"I'll die to avenge them." Shadow struggled back to his feet.

"Then go and bring them to me. You'll meet up with another who will help you with this task, just in case it is beyond your ability."

"I will not fail."

"Let's hope so."

**XxXxXxXx**

** MONICA**

I couldn't sleep that night for two reasons. One: was it just me, or were the fires drawing closer? And two: Knuckles was the loudest snorer I've ever herd, which is saying something.

"Shut up, Knuckles, just _shut up_!" I heard Mark mutter, but a few seconds later he began snoring.

I wasn't going to sleep at all. That much was apparent.

"Screw this," I whispered, drawing my knees up to my chin and staring out over the darkened world, where it was only lit up by the fire. I wondered if it would draw closer by morning.

"Oh, you can't sleep either?"

I jumped at Tails' voice. He crawled out from one of the tents and sat next to me, his fur ruffled from tossing and turning. "I don't think we have to worry about the fire if that's what you're worried about."

"How fast does it spread?" I asked.

"On average…well…no one knows. No one really wants to go near it. But I've heard it's engulfed whole neighborhoods in a week at least." Tails said. "But we'll be long gone before it reaches here."

"Good to know," I muttered.

"Is there a way to destroy the Nanobots?"

His question took me by surprise. _Was_ there a way?

"I don't know." I said instead. "There could be…but I'd have to get inside that lab."

A few seconds of silence, broken only by the loud snores.

"I swear, if I get ahold of a baseball bat…" I growled, pounding my fist into my palm. "He's gonna be out so cold for a month he won't even snore."

**XxXxXxXx**

Eventually the sun rose. Tails and I pretty much stayed where we were for the remainder of the night.

"You won't believe the dreams I had," Mark groaned, pulling himself out of a tent. "I dreamed something happened and we all lived on a cloud or something."

"That's nice," I rolled my eyes. It was pretty apparent that he wasn't totally awake yet.

"I dreamed of ice cream!" Silver piped up.

"I hope you dreamed me eating it."

"No, actually it fell in the fire."

"What a waste."

"So what's our plan, if we even _have_ a plan?" Mark interrupted, yawning. "Just sit here?"

"Unless you can think of one." Knuckles said. "We're no match against the Nanobots."

I grabbed a can of pears and set to work opening it. "Sooner or later we have to do something. Ice is after us, and he came pretty close to succeeding in his evil plans last time. We can't let him succeed this time, and we can't really do anything if we're sitting here doing nothing."

"...Good point!" Silver said.

"But we can't do anything about those taken over by the Nanobots. We need a way to deactivate them or something." Mark said.

"Maybe we can short circuit them somehow?" Knuckles suggested.

"That's a possibility." I nodded.

Sonic took that moment to crawl out of his tent, grab a can of peaches, and try dragging himself back in. Mark grabbed his foot and pulled him into our group. "Come on, Sonic. We need everyone working on this."

"I'm tired," Sonic muttered.

"Too bad."

"Can you think of any ideas on how to override the Nanobots?" Tails asked. "We think we can maybe short-circuit them."

"Yeah…that sounds good. Can I sleep now?"

"You can sleep when you're dead." Knuckles growled.

I rolled my eyes and stared out where the fire was smoldering in the distance. Was it closer? Great, now I'm all paranoid.

"I think we should head back to the lab," Mark said. "we've got a Chaos Emerald, and most of us here can control the Chaos attacks. We might have a chance."

"Keyword is_ might_." I muttered.

"Is that really the only plan we have to work with?" Tails sighed. "Well…it's better than nothing."

"So we're going to invade?" Silver squeaked.

"I think that's the only thing we can do at the moment."

"So when do we head out there?" Knuckles asked.

"Now."

** XxXxXxXx**

**MARK**

We began heading off the way we had come the previous day. The fires in the distance seemed to be brighter, lighting up the atmosphere and making morning come too early. Monica was checking supplies that she had put in a small bag, making sure we had everything we could possibly need.

"Ok…food…water…First Aid…Chaos Emerald…um…May I ask why there's duct tape?"

"In case we need to tie someone up." Silver said. "Plus I can do cool things with it."

"Ok then…" Monica rolled her eyes and lifted the strap of the backpack over her shoulder.

We walked in silence for a while. I could tell that the quiet was making everyone nervous, so I did the lamest thing ever.

I started a sing along to a Linkin Park song which only Monica and I knew.

"You fail," Tails laughed.

That was true. I sounded like a dying bear or something. No American Idol for me…

So on we went, still in silence but with lighter spirits.

"What powers them?" Sonic said after a while.

"Excuse me?" Monica asked.

"The Nanobots. I mean…where do they get their power source?"

That made me think. The Nanobots were about a trillion times smaller than a red blood cell…and most of their structure seemed to be for communication and responding to commands. Where would its power source be? How much energy did all of them together use up?

"What if it acts like a parasite," Tails started. "draining the energy from its host? But there's so many of them…who knows how much energy they steal away."

"If that's the case, then I think the prisoners of Ice are in more trouble than we originally thought." I said at last. "Now we really need to get a move on."

All of us began to walk faster. Was that a building in the distance? Or just another column of smoke?

Either way, I was ready.

** A/N: I hope you understand what they just sort of figured out. So the Nanobots are powered by the host, or so they think. Sorry the beginning was a little slow. The following chapters will be better, I promise. Remember to review!**


	2. Chapter 2

** CHAPTER 2**

** MARK**

"Here we are." I sighed, looking at the blank side of the building. No security cameras in sight. This seemed too easy.

"How do we get in?" Monica asked. "I don't see a door."

"That's because it's around the other side of the building, Smart One." I playfully punched her in the arm and made my way around a corner. "Found it."

We all huddled around the door, trying to come up with a plan.

"I'll go with Tails, Knuckles can go with Mark, and Monica can go with Silver." Sonic said. "We'll split up and meet back here at some point. Monica, be careful with the Emerald."

"I'll try." Monica muttered.

"So our main goal is to figure out what exacally the Nanobots do and how they work. The more information we get on these things, the better. And an added bonus is we rescue Shadow and Blaze." Sonic said. "Let's say…one hour and then we'll meet back here."

"Sounds good." I said. "Let's go!"

** XxXxXxXx**

The poor lighting in the halls seemed right out of a horror movie of some sort. At every sound I paused, trying to figure out of it was coming from the pipes in the walls or someone coming our way. Knuckles wasn't as careful.

"Mark, relax," He hissed. "no one's around."

"You never know." I hissed back. "And besides, they could have security cameras. They could be plotting how to kill us right now."

"Until that moment comes, stop being so paranoid."

"That's one way to put it…"

We reached a hallway that split off in two. I pointed left. "We'll try that way."

The hallway stretched for about thirty paces and then came to a dead end. Two doors were set into the wall at the end of the hall. I carefully approached the first one, but didn't hear anything inside. The second proved more interesting.

"I don't understand it." Someone was saying. "Why do they keep dying?"

I motioned for Knuckles to be quiet and listen in. I hoped that they weren't talking about our friends…

"It's obvious. They resist," Came another voice, this one I knew. It sent a shiver down my spine. "if they resist, they die."

Ice.

"No one's issued the Nanobots to kill them. I checked." Came the first voice again.

"It could be a number of things," Ice sounded bored. "it could be that they're too weak, it could be an improper amount of Nanobots were injected into them, it could just be a mistake we're making over and over again. Take your pick."

"Sir…what if it's there's too many Nanobots clustered in their hearts? The added weight could eventually kill them. The stress of the Nanobots could burst-"

"That is a possibility." Ice said thoughtfully. "But unfortunately we've measured and re-measured the amount we give them. It's based on their age, weight and stability. You know this."

"Sir, what if even _we_ don't fully understand the Nanobots?"

That brought a huge blanket of silence over the room. I held my breath in case I was breathing too loudly.

"Even if you don't understand anything about them, I do. Who invented them? _I_ did. I know more about them than I'll let you in on. Except this fact…there are Nanobots inside _you_. There are Nanobots inside _everyone in this facility_."

I heard Ice's assistant give a startled gasp.

"That's right. I had everyone injected the second you entered this place. Remember that vaccine that would shield us against any alien diseases?"

I pictured the assistant nodding slowly.

"It was loaded with Nanobots."

Hard, loud footsteps. The doorknob turned. I jumped backwards away from the door and pressed my back against the wall. The door opened just as Ice said in a dangerous voice:

"_Niño Del Muerto_."

The assistant fell, hitting the wall in front of him. He looked like he wasn't much older than me. He had light brown hair, thick black glasses and wide, scared eyes. He caught sight of me before his eyes glazed over and he moved no more.

_ "Child Of The Dead."_

I couldn't take my eyes away from the dead assistant's face. I only moved when Knuckles grabbed my arm and began dragging me down the hallway. I blinked hard and began to run. I just wanted to get away from there…

** XxXxXxXx**

** MONICA**

Silver and I hadn't run into trouble …yet. The only close call we had was a guy walking down the hall, humming to himself. We dived into an open door and stayed there until he was long gone.

"That was sort of close." Silver whispered.

I could only nod.

Now we were creeping down a rather long and dark hallway, hoping that there were no security cameras or anything. A door caught my attention:

" 'President'" I read.

I waited for Silver to say something, but when he didn't I continued on. "Do you think Ice would be in here?"

"He is in charge…but he could be busy somewhere else." Silver whispered, staring down the hallway.

"Well, if he is somewhere else, we can go in there and see what he's got planned."

"That might work…"

"Is he in there, or not? You're the psychic one!" I hissed.

"Oh. No, he's somewhere else." Silver was still staring unblinkingly down the hall.

"What's wrong?" I asked, almost dreading an answer.

"There's someone down there."

"Who?" I reached into the bag I was carrying, trying to find the Emerald.

"I don't know. But someone's there, probably watching us."

"Does the guy seem like a threat?" I asked, trying to make out a form in the darkness.

"Look…He's right there." Silver pointed.

"I don't see anyone," I protested. "just darkness."

"Monica, he _is_ the darkness."

** XxXxXxXx**

Shadow was trapped in the worst place anyone could be trapped: Their own mind. The Nanobots had nearly forced his consciousness completely away, leaving him barely able to know what was going on around him. He could hardly hear what the Nanobots made him say.

Although a name stuck firmly in his mind. If it was true, and he was here, then Mobius might stand a chance if the others team up with him. And of course, wherever he was, his sister wouldn't be far behind.

Mark. Monica.

Their mission wasn't that hard…just save the entire planet.

**XxXxXxXx**

I took a step backwards and tried to make out any shape in the dark ahead of us. Nothing. No one.

"I think your eyes were just playing tricks on you." I said at last.

"I can sense him," Silver protested. "if I were completely blind I would still be able to tell that there's someone ahead."

"Who is it, then?" I countered, still nervous. My hand was in the bag, but I couldn't find the Emerald.

"I don't know."

I turned my attention back on the door in front of us. I re-slung the bag over my shoulder and reached for the knob. It turned with a loud squeak and opened into a semi-dark room. The only light came from a dimmed computer screen. No one was there.

"Come on, let's make this quick. You're worrying me." I stepped into the room, waiting for my eyes to adjust.

Silver still hadn't moved or blinked, from what I could tell. He was still staring into the darkness.

"_Silver_!" I hissed.

That got his attention. He jumped backwards, cast a startled glance at me and then scurried into the room, shutting the door behind him. "He's gone, Monica. I don't know where he went. When I looked away he was gone…"

"It's just a trick." I said more to myself than him. This was no time to be paranoid.

I went over to the computer and saw it was password protected.

"Any idea what the password could be?" I asked, typing a few letters into the bar.

DENIED.

I tried 'Nanobot/Ice'.

DENIED.

"Try 'PN1545-3921/TRIAL/MOBIUS'." Silver said after a moment's hesitation. "Capitals for the words."

I typed it in as fast as I could and hit enter, hoping for some outcome that was positive.

ACCEPTED.

The blue password screen vanished to be replaced by a 4GB file. I began to scroll down the page. "Where to start…" I mumbled.

The words 'Chaos Emeralds' caught my eye. I stopped scrolling down and began to read:

_ PT 9t/29M: NANOBOT POWER_

_ Once in the desired host, the Nanobots will drain power through diffusion. The increased number of Nanobots in a small area will greaten the chances of death over a long period of time. The power of the Chaos Emeralds is sufficient for powering both the Nanobots and their host. Rate of survival is significantly higher, around the 78 percentage. All hosts without this extraordinary power are likely to die within approximately 168 hours- _

I could only gape at the words written on the screen. If what was said was true, then Shadow was safe…for the moment. He lived off the power of the Emeralds, but as far as I knew he didn't possess any Emeralds at the moment. Blaze couldn't use the power, so she was more at a risk…

_ …Approximately 168 hours…_

"How long ago since all this Nanobot crap began taking place?" I demanded, making Silver jump.

"About… about four days ago."

"We need to stop them before Blaze dies." I locked the computer again and began looking around the room, hoping for anything that could help us defeat Ice and his Nanobots.

"Dies?" Silver squeaked.

"The Nanobots will eventually drain her of her energy, killing her. Shadow's fine…for now. He lives off the power of the Emeralds, so he's fine. But if we don't get him near an Emerald soon, then we might have a probablem on our hands." I found a stack of papers and began to go through them. "Although we want to stop this as soon as we can. Blaze only has a few days left. Come over here; you glow and I need light."

Silver leaned against the table I was looking over, spilling blue-green light over the papers. One of the caught my eye. It looked like a drawing of some sort of satellite…

"Oh my gah…" I mumbled, realizing it wasn't what I thought it was. What I was looking at was a greatly drawn Nanobot, obviously not drawn to size.

It was the shape of red blood cell, but slightly curved over. Its back was covered with some silver-ish material, like tinfoil. A small arrow drawn from its back to the margins of the paper explained that that was its main power converting center and where the diffusion took place. Its sides were sleek and dark red, making it seem like blood was painted onto its sides. Another arrow explained that this was where it received instructions. A small green patch on the front of it was for its limited memory. Apparently the scientists programmed them ahead of time to either head for the brain or the heart.

And what I guess I would call its underbelly was covered in tiny, sharp blades covered with a very thin glassy material.

"This is incredible." I muttered. "All this technology…and it's being used for evil."

Silver could only nod.

I continued looking at the drawing and notes. Apparently the Nanobots would enter the cells in the heart and root themselves somewhere around the Nucleus. There, they would wait in case they were needed. But in doing so they used up so much of the organism's energy. The ones in the brain would also root themselves in, although there'd sometimes be six of them to a cell. They'd crowd out the cells and cause damage to their host. I hoped that this would not be permanent...

I head the squeak of the doorknob. Silver jumped and I spun around and dug my hand into the bag again, desperate to find the Emerald so I could warn off our attacker.

The door opened slowly, spilling yellowish light into the room. But no one was there. No one was there…yet a long shadow spread over the threshold.

"That's the guy," Silver muttered. "the guy I saw earlier."

My fingers brushed the Emerald, but I didn't feel any power like earlier. I hoped against hope that it wasn't just a one-time thing. "Who's there?" I said in a hoarse whisper. "Show yourself!"

A strange, low sound originated somewhere around the door. It rose in volume and pitch until I realized our mysterious visitor was laughing. Chills shot up my spine. That was one of those Ha-ha-ha-I've-cornered-you-at-last laughs. The kind of laughs you should only find in horror movies.

"You've done well to get this far,"

I could only describe this as the voice of evil. Before, I had thought Ice had the most cruel voice I had ever heard, but this one took the cake. This one hinted at schemes and death.

"Sadly, you won't be going any further," The voice continued. "I'll make sure of that."

"Show yourself!" I growled.

Silver took a step back, whispering, "He's _here_. Monica…he's everywhere here!"

"What?" I didn't have time for riddles and I just wanted this guy to show himself. I grabbed the Emerald and lifted it out of the bag, shedding bright yellow light around the room.

Was it just me, or did the shadows nearby literally _melt_ away from the glow?

"What do you want?" I demanded, feeling confident. "Tell me."

"I don't want anything," The voice was behind me, next to my left ear. I didn't dare turn around. My heart was thumping so hard I thought It'd break out of my chest. "I don't want anything, but Ice does. And… he ….wants….._YOU_."

I felt power flare up my arm and all over my body. The rage I felt earlier when Shadow attacked Mark was back at full force. I was determined to defeat this threat. I spun around, sending a Chaos Spear crashing into the table with the drawings on it. Something was different this time…the rage was mingling in with fear and hatred. Hatred for Ice, for the mysterious attacker, and for letting this happen. Fear for both Silver and I and for the others. Rage…I couldn't explain rage. It was just there…

"You won't stop me that easily." The voice said again, this time up above me. I looked up…did a shadow just move?...nothing there.

"Show yourself!" I nearly shouted, sending another Spear where I though the darkness had moved.

Silence. Nothing moved.

"Monica, he can't be defeated." Silver said at last. "He's everywhere where there's darkness. If we make light, then he'll be forced to take a form, and-"

He was cut off as what looked like a rope made of darkness wrapped around his neck and pulled tight. Another curled around his arms and legs, securing them tightly and lifting him off the ground. Three more encircled his chest and stomach, squeezing what little air he had out of him.

"LET HIM GO!" I screamed, throwing Spears into the darkness behind my friend. Where the light from the Spears hit, the darkness retreated…and then seemed to grow back once it realized the threat was gone. Silver couldn't breathe, only manage small choking sounds that were steadily growing weaker…

My attention shot towards the door. If what Silver said was right; about the dark, then there should be a light switch somewhere.

"Drop the Emerald and he will be spared," The voice said. "but don't take too long deciding—he doesn't have that much time left."

I shot a Spear at the light switch, blasting it to bits but switching it on at the same time. Light flooded the room. The dark tendrils wrapped around Silver released him, sending him crashing back to the floor. He began gasping for breath.

Now the darkness was in a corner. Nowhere to go unless it wanted to be burned by the light. I thought I heard it groan.

Almost against my will, I dropped the Chaos Emerald into my bag. The rage, power, fear and invincibility faded, leaving me almost feeling weak. The darkness in front of me laughed again, but it didn't seem as evil and as confidant as before.

"You've won this battle, but not the war." It said.

"Who are you?" I hissed. "And don't bother lying. We both know who's got the upper hand now."

The darkness swirled upward and became a vortex that seemed too fast to be possible. It became a little over half my height before it began to take a shape.

"Shadow?" I asked, incredibly confused. "What's…what…"

No, this wasn't Shadow. This guy had dark blue markings where Shadow was red. And his eyes were bright green and catlike. He didn't seem to have a mouth…

"I'm Mephiles. Mephiles the Dark." The darkness said.

** XxXxXxXx**

** MARK**

I still couldn't get over the shock of seeing someone die right in front of me. Knuckles dragged me down hallway after hallway, but I didn't even notice where we were going. Ice was mad…just killing like that was inhuman.

"Mark!"

I snapped back to reality. "What?" I asked Knuckles.

"We need to meet back up with the others and get out of here. If Ice discovers we're in the lab, there's a good possibility that he'll use Shadow and Blaze against us. We've got to bail."

"Right…" I muttered. I was still sort of in shock.

"Come on, Mark. You've been through worse." Knuckles dragged me around another corner. "We all have." He added.

I tried to recall the past horrors…but none came close to this. Never before have we seen anyone killed. More than once before we've been threatened with death, but now I knew the full weight of the curse.

"Where do you think Monica and Silver are?" Knuckles stopped at a corner, trying to see if anyone was coming. When he was certain no one was approaching, he began dragging me again.

"They're probably in one of the rooms, digging into the information on the Nanobots." I knew what my sister would do in situations like this. "But they would be near the exit, just in case. Monica always plots out escape before doing anything else."

"Then we can worry about them later. We need to find Sonic and Tails."

Down another hallway. I tore out of Knuckles' iron grip and quit stumbling now that I was more coordinated. None of the doors we passed seemed eye-catching or likely to yield any useful information. But then again…

An alarm began to blare. Harsh streaks of red light lit up the hallway. "Intruder alert! Intruder alert!" A computerized female voice shouted over and over.

"Crap," I muttered.

Knuckles threw open a door with frosted glass covering a window on it and we stumbled into the room. He managed to shut the door just as the shadows of at least ten men ran past. We didn't dare move for about a minuet.

"Who do you think was discovered?" I whispered at last.

"I think the question that should be asked is 'How are we going to get out of here?' or 'Will the others escape quickly?'" Knuckles began to slowly make his way through the room, occasionally bumping into a table. "Where the heck are we?"

Over the blaring alarm, I managed to make out a low, deep humming coming from the back of the small, boxy room. Once my eyes adjusted to the next-to-nothing light, I made out the shape of what appeared to be either a large generator or a tank.

"What do you think that's for?" I asked.

"Something either extremely evil, or something extremely _extremely_ evil," Knuckles decided.

I made my way back to the machine. The humming grew louder and I found a few small blinking lights on the sides. I felt a small tugging around my neck and whirled around to see who was there. No one was. Now the tugging came from behind me.

I saw the metal tips of the pull strings on my sweatshirt nearly sticking to the sides of the machine. I pulled them back, but they popped right back up again, trying desperately to get to the thing.

"It's magnetized," I whispered.

"The Nanobots are tiny robots, right?" Knuckles asked slowly.

"Yeah." I thought I knew where he was going with this.

"What if magnetism will deactivate…kill them? What if this generator thing is keeping the magnetism in this building next to zero, keeping the Nanobots safe?"

Of course.

"I wish we thought of this sooner." I muttered, backing away from the de-magnetizing contraption. The pull strings on my sweatshirt lost their attraction and fell limply on my chest.

"The hard part will be getting everyone together to tell them this." Knuckles said. "Because for now, we're stuck in here and I don't want to risk getting caught if I hammer this thing."

More shadows crossed in front of the frosted glass on the door. "We might as well try to hide," I pointed under the tables. "hide and hope that no one gets caught."

** XxXxXxXx**

** MONICA**

Silver had curled into a small silvery ball and refused to move. I had managed to drive the strange shadowy being who called himself Mephiles from the room, but I knew sooner or later I would have to confront him again…or some guards. The lights in the room were bright. Bound to attract attention.

An alarm began to blare, startling me.

"Come on, Silver! Guards could be here any second!" I pleaded.

"I …c-can't, Monica." He sounded terrible. I didn't blame him.

"Why not?" I asked.

"…It still hurts."

I knelt down next to him and put my hand on his back. "Come on, Silver. We really need to get out of here before…" I trailed off as I noticed something a bit odd.

I parted Silver's fur and made out tiny puncture wounds, smaller than a pinprick and oozing a single drop of blood, circling his body…Where the tendrils of darkness had nearly squeezed the life out of him.

"Ow,"

"Sorry." I smoothed his fur back. I would have to worry about that later. "Silver, please. Come on!" I stood up, trying to find anything that could be useful as a weapon. I wasn't about to use the Chaos Emerald again. The power of the thing was slightly unnerving. I was crossing over to some tables when Silver started whimpering, uncurling and curling back into a ball.

"Silver, what's wrong?" I ran back to him.

He started shivering violently, pain choking his words. He managed to give an agonized moan but nothing more than that. Feverish heat rolled off him in waves. He finally lay still on his right side, breathing shallowly and unsteadily.

"Silver!" I risked shouting. "Silver! Say something!"

The red and agitated skin was so warm it felt as though I was touching some furry heater. Panic swept through me. I could address and bandage anything from cuts to bullet wounds, but this was beyond me. if I knew at least what was causing this I might be able to do something…

Twenty guards found me there, trying desperately to wake my companion.

** XxXxXxXx**

** MARK**

The alarms blared for a full twenty minuets before finally shutting off. I could still hear them ringing in my ears, but it was better than the full blasting noise.

"Finally," Knuckles said.

"Tell me about it." I could feel a small headache coming on. But I would be forced to ignore it for now.

"Should we risk it and head out?"

"I don't know. I don't hear anyone." Truth was I could hardly hear _anything_ over the ringing in my ears.

"I think we should try," Knuckles crawled out from under the table he was hiding under. "at worst there'll be guards. At best we'll find everyone else out there."

"Correction: at worst we'll find Ice. At best we'll find chocolate cake." I snickered.

Knuckles shot me a weird look. "This isn't a time for jokes."

"Just trying to keep the mood light." I laughed nervously.

Knuckles opened the door and peeked around the doorframe. "No one's there. If we're going, we have to go now."

I crawled out from under my table and joined him at the exit. "Let's get out of here."

We began heading quickly yet carefully down the hall. Twice someone was coming our way and we had to duck into a nearby door. Three times we were nearly discovered.

"I have a question," I finally said at last. "where the heck are we gonna get a giant magnet?"

"We'll worry about that later." Knuckles said. "Right now our biggest concern is getting out of here, alive and uncontrolled by Nanobots."

I had to agree with that.

Someone was coming up ahead. Knuckles grabbed a nearby doorknob and turned it. Locked. The door next to that one…locked.

"Back here!" I hissed, pointing back the way we had come. We darted down the hall and into the door we had just hid in. The person walked past our door and down the corridor.

"That was too close." Knuckles hissed.

"No duh."

He tried to turn the knob but the door didn't budge. It didn't even rattle in its hinges. My eyes had adjusted to the room, making out a small window that was letting in a very small amount of light. Computers lined the far wall, their screens dark and towers switched off.

"Mark, what's wrong with this damn door?" Knuckles yanked on the knob, but this time the knob didn't even budge.

"I don't know…but look! There's a window. Light's coming from it…it's our way out." I walked over to the window and brushed aside the shades.

It wasn't an outside view I was getting. Instead I was overlooking a brightly lit lab. A huge glass tank seemed to hold darkness until I realized what it really was.

Trillions upon trillions _upon trillions_ of Nanobots.

"Whoa," I took a step backwards. "Knuckles, you've got to see this."

Knuckles stopped yanking on the door and came up beside me. His eyes grew wide as mine had and he whispered, "They really are trying to take over our planet."

"And probably many more in the future," I said hoarsely. "that's more than enough for this planet."

There was a stunned silence broken only by this spoken by an unknown voice:

"It's more than enough for this planet…and yours."

I jumped backwards, ready to fight. "Who's there?"

A cold laugh seemed to envelope me. It was all around…I turned but didn't see anyone. Knuckles apparently heard the voice too. He got into a fighting stance and hissed, "Show yourself!"

Was it just me, or did that shadow just move?

A sharp, pricking feeling came over my hand. I jerked it up and away from..whatever…and discovered a small drop of blood on the end of my thumb.

"What was that?" I asked nervously. I knew I was no match against a ghost or whatever was confronting us.

Knuckles jumped backwards and started rubbing his arm. "What just poked me?"

This time there was no mistaking it. A shadow underneath a table moved towards me, covering my shoe and most of my leg. Angry pricks covered every area covered by darkness. I yelped and jumped backwards, trying desperately to drive the darkness off.

Instead I tripped and fell to the floor, where it began to cover my head. More pricks. I couldn't see…

Then blinding light everywhere. The darkness retreated visibly into a corner. The pain subsided. I looked at my leg to see what appeared to be an allergic reaction of some kind; bright red and slightly oozing blood.

"Are you all right, Mark?" Knuckles hauled me to my feet.

"Yeah…Yeah, I'm fine." It took me a second to realize that he had thrown the light switch. "What is that?" I asked nervously, pointing to the dark.

It began to swirl upwards until it was about the size of Knuckles. Features began to take shape. What was standing—yes, standing—in front of me was an almost perfect replica of Shadow, except for red stripes this…thing… had dark blue. Its eyes were a deadly, poisonous, catlike green that seemed to stare into my soul.

"Who are you?" Knuckles demanded.

The thing laughed. I became aware that it...he… didn't exacally have a mouth.

"I'm Mephiles," he said at last.

"Well, Mephiles, you're going to wish you've never attacked us." Knuckles rushed at him, fists extended.

I wasn't quite sure what happened, but I was pretty certain that Knuckles shot through Mephiles and hit the table behind him, overturning it and sending papers everywhere. Mephiles then turned and sent a wave of darkness at him, blasting him off his feet and into the wall.

"Don't underestimate me again."

Knuckles fell back to the ground hard. I almost ran to him, except I was worried about what Mephiles would do to me. Instead I sort of stood there and probably got a horrified look on my face, because Mephiles said, "That's right, human. You're obviously smarter than your friend here."

He was still facing the wall, but his head turned _completely around_ to stare me down. I nearly gagged.

Mephiles laughed again and turned his attention back to Knuckles, who was struggling to get up. This was my chance…

I scanned the nearby tables, looking for something that could be useful to scare off our attacker. There were an abundant number of pens and pencils, paper, calculators and rulers, but there were also syringes, books, tape, flash-drives…and a mirror. Perfect.

I lunged for it. Mephiles just barely turned his head around again before I had the mirror in my grasp and aiming light around the room.

As the bright, reflective beam hit him, Mephiles began to back into the corner, trying to get away from the blinding light. Particles of darkness vanished and then… regrew? It was odd…

"Good thinking, Mark." Knuckles managed to get back on his feet. "Come on, we need to think of getting out of here."

"You won't be able to escape," Mephiles hissed, raising his hand to stop the light from shining in his eyes. His hand started to fade and then come back with a new ferocity, and then fade again. "you won't be able to escape…without your sister."

I felt a wave of fear wash over me. The mirror's beam wavered. Mephiles lunged forward and turned back into a dark shadow, diving into the shade cast by a nearby table.

I instantly directed the beam of light where he had fled, but he was ready. With surprising speed he jumped out from under the table and flew at me, taking a solid form as he went. I just had time to gasp as his fingers wrapped around my throat and shoved me backwards…

…out the window.

Glass broke around me and I was suddenly plunging at least two stories to the ground. Mephiles let go of my throat and zipped back up to the window, leaving me free falling.

Until my skydiving experience was cut short by a table loaded with papers. I think that was the only reason I was still alive. One of the legs on the table snapped, sending me sliding to the ground, dazed and bruised but otherwise unhurt.

A shout was cut short from the window I had fallen out of. Then silence. I was about to try to figure out how to get out of the lab when a sharp stabbing pain started in my ankle. It seemed to be spreading up my leg…my forehead began throbbing with pain, only it began to move down my head.

My knees buckles and I collapsed, gripping my leg and head and trying not to scream. White light flashed in my vision…then red…blue…green…

And then nothing at all.

**XxXxXxXx**

** A/N: How's that for suspense? I worked hard on this, so I hope you all leave nice comments (HINT, HINT) Don't worry, no one's gonna die…yet. *Evil laughter* but there will be more suspense and stuff. Believe me, it just gets better as you read on.**

** Oh, and supershadower, your OC is in the next chap…his name's Spade.…**


	3. Chapter 3

** CHAPTER 3**

Since splitting up from the group, everything had been going according to plan…

"Tails?"

…Sonic and Tails had ventured down a few darkened hallways, occasionally hiding from a worker that was heading their way. They hadn't come close to being discovered…

"Tails, can you hear me?"

…Of course, that was before they ducked into a lab to avoid being discovered. Once they realized where they were, they set to work trying to find anything that could be of use. Like how to stop the Nanobots or the place where they were being made. Instead they were attacked by what seemed like darkness…

"Tails! Come on, buddy!"

…The darkness had caught Tails off guard. It wrapped him in its cocoon-like blackness and then disappeared almost as soon as it had appeared. Only now Sonic suspected something more than darkness had attacked them…

"_TAILS!_"

Still no response from his friend. An alarm blared somewhere in the building, and guards ran past the lab. Sonic waited until they were long gone before he tried to wake his companion again.

"They could open the door and find us here any second!" Sonic tried to haul Tails to his feet. "Come on!"

"Oh, he won't wake. Not now, at least."

Sonic nearly dropped Tails at the strange voice. Instead he slowly lowered him to the floor before turning and demanding, "Who's there?"

"It's strange, how your group reacts the same. Every single one of them demanded who was there…and every single one of them ended in screams,"

Sonic spun around towards the voice, but no one was there.

"You're next," The voice said somewhere to his right.

** XxXxXxXx**

** MONICA**

I only got a quick glance at the guards as they piled in the room, but a glance wasn't enough to take in the detail. One of them grabbed my arms and pulled me back from Silver.

"No! Let me go! Don't hurt him! What do you want? Who are you?" The questions that shot out of my mouth I wanted answered immeadentally. The statements I wanted followed.

"Monica please…" The guard that pulled me away from Silver was definitely female. She let go of my arm and knelt next to me. "stay back. This is for everyone's good."

Something about her was familiar…

My thoughts were torn away from this strange guard as a weak cry fought its way out of Silver's throat. The leader of the group had rolled him onto his back and was motioning to another guard. From the group came a serious looking Mobian, about Shadow's height and build. He was a deep purple, almost blue; his quills were messy and untamed like he hadn't had very much time to himself over the past few days. He took a backpack off his shoulder as he approached the guard and rummaged through it, pulling out something about the size of a scientific calculator.

"What's that for?" I nearly laughed, despite the circumstances. What was he going to do with a calculator?

"We've only done this once, when a subject was injected with too many Nanobots-" The guard beside me started, but I interrupted.

"But Silver wasn't injected with them."

"How do you explain the pinpricks?"

How do I? Once I thought about it, only one solution came to mind. Somehow Mephiles wasn't just made of darkness…he was also one with the Nanobots. The thought sent chills down my spine.

I was jolted out of my creepy imagination by a slight whirling noise. I looked toward the Mobian, who was entering something on the 'calculator' thing with the small keyboard. It flashed blue and the whirling got louder.

"What is he doing?" I asked, suddenly nervous.

"That device he's holding has a very strong magnetic force. It'll kill most if not all the Nanobots in Silver's bloodstream." The guard explained.

"How do you know his name…" I trailed off as it hit me. "you're Olivia."

The guard smiled grimly. "That I am."

In our previous adventure/horror thingamajig, Olivia helped us escape from Ice almost indirectly. Although, without her, I can bet that my friends would be dead. She had apparently 'forgotten' to lock some locks, and thanks to her we all survived. I was really surprised to see her here, out of all places…

Silver started to thrash again, moans and whimpers nearly breaking my heart. The other Mobian held the calculator thing directly over his chest. The device began to flash red. Silver, arched his back, thrashing harder than before and screaming. The guard beside the Mobian with the device had to hold him down.

"STOP!" I shouted over Silver's screams. "STOP! YOU'RE _KILLING_ HIM!"

Olivia grabbed my arm before I could lunge forward. "Monica, it'll be over in a few seconds! Trust me, this is better than having the Nanobots eat through his heart!"

Silver eventually stopped thrashing and his screams faded away. The Mobian beside him switched off the device and stowed it away in the bag. "It killed every one." He declared. His voice was slightly scratchy, like he had been shouting orders for a long time.

Olivia let my arm go and I ran toward my friend. "Silver?"

Before it had been like he had been in a bad dream. Now he seemed to be just sleeping peacefully. That dramatic change struck me as good…hopefully.

"What's your name?" The dark Mobian asked, staring directly at me.

"I'm Monica." I said. "You?"

"Spade the Hedgehog," He said. "Nanobot supervisor and captain of this facility."

"You're the _leader_?" I nearly shrieked.

"Monica, there's something we have to tell you," Olivia said before Spade could get a chance to say anything else. "we've not been injected with Nanobots. Ice thinks he's injected us, but he hasn't bothered to double check. We've been ordered to bring you to him."

"Luckily he didn't say how." Said the leader of the guards. He gave me a small smile and I nearly burst out in tears.

"Good to see you again, Leo," I choked out instead.

Leo was mainly the reason Mark and I were alive. While Olivia worked indirectly to save our friends, Leo directly helped Mark save both us and probably all of Mobius…for a short time at any rate. Something was striking me as odd…why had Ice rounded up everyone who had worked for him before and not new personnel?

Leo shook his head slowly. "I would prefer meeting you at a park or something, not in another lab."

"So now Ice is in for a nasty surprise," Spade continued. "Silver is the second one to have been freed from the Nanobots, the first being a cat…oh…what's her name…"

"Blaze?" I nearly jumped. "She's not infected?"

"Not anymore." Spade said. "Although any longer and she would have been done for. We've smuggled her out of the lab and to a safe place. She's recovering now."

"Why was Silver acting like that when the Nanobots were injected into him?" I asked.

"Because there were too many of the same type. Those were the ones that would kill you if you resisted, so that's why those rings of blood appeared on his skin. But there were too many in his bloodstream, weighing down blood cells and making his heart beat nearly too fast. Any more and it would have given out."

"What about Mephiles?" I asked.

"What about him?" Olivia glanced towards the door.

"How did he have Nanobots inside him?"

"They weren't really _inside_ him…" Leo said thoughtfully.

"I think we owe you an explanation." Spade shot him a glare. "Originally when this world spilt apart it released a demon known as Iblis. Along with Iblis was what everyone thought was a shadow. Until this shadow began to figure out how to take a form. It called itself Mephiles and went to work trying to recover the seven Chaos Emeralds to make Iblis more powerful than it already is. The more power, the more destruction."

"When Ice got here and learned about this, he decided to do something that would benefit himself and his corrupted research," Olivia took over. "he set a trap for Mephiles, who walked right into it. Ice used a Chaos Emerald to both lure Mephiles and boost the energy of the Nanobots to fuse in with his darkness. Mephiles became one with the Nanobots…and the Nanobots became one with him. Now the darkness could enslave you to Ice if you're not careful. But Mephiles has killed more than he has recruited."

"He still doesn't know the right amount of Nanobots to inject into a victim," Leo jumped in. "and he only has one of the two types to spare. The ones controlling his thoughts can't be spared to infect other victims."

"So…we're up against Ice and his creepy scientists and literally a shadow," I sighed. "doesn't sound very fair."

"But we have the element of surprise." Spade said. "Ice doesn't know that we're not effected; or some of his slaves are now free."

I thought it over. "So…we basically have to free enough people to take a stand against Ice?"

"Right now we have two major probablems on our hands." Olivia sighed. "We have to stop Ice, but I think our first priority is Mephiles and Iblis. The two of them together, with three Emeralds…are nearly already unstoppable."

"_He's got three Emeralds?_" I nearly shouted.

"…possibly four, but that just could be a rumor." Leo cringed.

"Well, I have one." I reached into my bag and brought the yellow Emerald out. "And they're not getting this one."

"At least we can keep them from getting all eight." Spade muttered.

"Eight?" I asked.

"Yeah, eight." Spade shot me a look that said, 'where have you been for the last few days?' "So far we have in our possession the yellow and light blue Emeralds. And thanks to Olivia…the Master Emerald."

**XxXxXxXx**

** MARK**

When I finally woke up, it was dark. I didn't know what time it was or where I was. My head seemed like it was about to burst and my leg felt like it was on fire. But I could move, at least. I reached out and my fingers brushed a wall. I slowly got up, aided by the wall, and began to make my way around it.

Circular. I had no idea where a door was, if there was one. But how did I get in the room?

A sound caught my attention. I thought someone was in this room with me. I stood still and tried to listen for any more noise. "Hello?"

Silence answered.

Silence and a deep rumbling that seemed to come from the ground. The rumbling grew in intensity until I had to use the wall for minor support so the shaking wouldn't cause me to lose my footing. I waited for about two minuets while the earthquake-like sensation spread through the ground, never ceasing but never too much to knock me off my feet.

And just as sudden as it had hit, it stopped. Silence descended upon the dark room again as though nothing had happened.

"What the heck?" I muttered to myself.

My answer came in the form of a door opening, shedding light into the circular room that was more like an empty cell. I turned to see Shadow enter, his eyes fixed on me as though he expected me to attack him.

"This way." He growled.

I followed him out of the cell down a short hallway to another room…the same room I had landed in when I fell out the window. Ice was there, holding a syringe filled with something dark as the night. I knew instantly what it was.

"Glad you could join us, Mark. I was very impressed you've made it this far." He sneered, blue eyes flashing. I barely managed to keep myself from lunging at him and knocking him across the room.

"Where's Monica?" I demanded.

"That's a good question. I'll call for her." Ice drew some sort of communicator out of his pocket and pressed a button, saying, "Bring the girl here."

Dread dropped into my stomach like a lead ball. Had she been injected with the Nanobots? Was she a slave to these people like I was pretty sure I was going to be?

Darkness swirled out from a corner and took a shape next to Ice's side. "Iblis is growing more powerful," Mephiles said, excitement hinting at his voice.

Was that the cause of the shudder I had felt earlier? And if so…how powerful did this thing get in so short a time?

"Good. How about the other intruders? Are they under our control?" Ice asked as though he didn't care for Iblis' rise to power.

"I believe so."

A door on the opposite side of the room opened to let a small group of people in, all of them being lead by a dark colored Mobian who seemed to be in charge. "Sir, one of them was improperly injected. He lives, but barely. I request use of a healing unit."

I blinked hard. Monica was among the group…but there were two people on either side of her I recognized. How had Ice managed to bring back all his past minions? Had they gone willingly? Probably not. Leo fixed me with a blank stare while Olivia kept her gaze on Ice, almost completely ignoring Silver, who was lying limply in her arms.

"Request granted." Ice said in almost bored tones. "Do it quickly. We have important business to attend to."

"Yes, sir." The dark purple hedgehog said almost robotically.

He, Olivia and Monica left, leaving the rest of the group. Ice tapped the syringe he was holding and glanced in my direction.

"Your other friends have already been taken care of. None of them have escaped, and you won't be an exception. You might have escaped once, but this time no one is here to save you. You're going to help me take over this planet and the one I used to call home. Soon everyone shall know my name and what I intend to do." Ice hissed, almost to himself.

That last statement sparked a question in my mind. "What _is_ your name?"

"You shall know soon enough." Ice growled, tightening his grip on the syringe and taking a few steps towards me. "You all shall know."

I felt Shadow grab my arms, keeping me from running. Mephiles narrowed his bright green eyes in my direction as if daring me to run, but even if I could I wouldn't. There was no escape from the room. I could only watch as Ice advanced towards me, the needle inching closer and closer to my head.

** XxXxXxXx**

** MONICA**

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"There's a room near the back that can heal any injury." Spade said. "We'll heal Silver and fill him in with what happened and then try to one by one save your friends. By the time they're all healed we might have a chance on overthrowing Ice's power and stopping Iblis and Mephiles."

"But what if we don't?" I asked slowly. "What if he has a plan in case something like this happens?"

"That's impossible." Olivia stated. "Ice may be a brilliant moron, but he's not going to see a flaw like this in his evil creation. We have the upper hand and the element of surprise."

"Good to know." I sighed.

We came to a door at the end of the hall. Spade pulled the handle open and we entered into a clean, blinding white room. There was what looked like a giant glass egg covering a small, sterilized table. Attached to the glass's left side was a small computer connected to a machine about my height. Spade pressed a few buttons on the computer and the glass retracted just enough so Olivia could enter under it and put Silver on the table. She exited it and Spade let the glass slide back in place. He pressed a few more buttons and a soft humming began.

"How does this thing work?" I asked.

"The oxygen is mixed with both a relaxant and multiple healing mixtures that should have him up and walking within fifteen minuets. It's strong stuff." Olivia began. "The air pressure is also different in there, set at a different level to actually speed up the process of healing anything broken…if he even had any broken bones. The humming is caused by a low, microscopic vibration that should help speed his recovery. A lot of research obviously went into this."

"And it actually works?" I asked.

"Apparently. Look."

Silver sat straight up and glanced towards us wildly, obviously freaked out by the new room we were all in and the glass walls separating him from us. Olivia walked closer to the glass and said loudly and clearly, "Silver, relax. We managed to deactivate the Nanobots inside of you but you nearly died in the process. This device is speeding up your recovery, so just sit tight for now."

Silver gave us a nervous nod and lay back down, still giving us a worried look.

"Now comes the hard part of acting that we're all under the power of the Nanobots." Spade muttered. "Something tells me he'll blow our cover."

"Something tells me that we'll all end up blowing our own cover." Olivia said. "I think they may even have suspicions already."

"I sure hope not." I shuddered. I didn't want to go through what Mark and I went through with our first encounter with Ice again. Although something told me that if something like that happened again…the outcome could be a lot worse.

"When we overpower Ice and this place…what about Iblis? We don't exacally have all the Chaos Emeralds and we could be prevented from doing anything against it right away," Spade growled. "we could easily be overpowered and killed."

"But we could also take even Iblis and Mephiles by surprise. We could overthrow them as easily as we do this place." Olivia cast a nervous glance towards the door, as though she were worried someone was listening in.

"They'll have warning before we attack them though," I pointed out. "one of them might watch us get rid of this place."

A small tapping sound came to my right. I turned to see Silver standing at the glass, giving us a look that said something along the lines of, 'Can I get out of here now?'

"Let him out, Spade." Olivia said.

Spade pressed a few buttons and the glass lifted into the air. Silver ducked under it and came towards us. "What's going on?"

"Ice thinks you're injected with Nanobots. Technically, you were…but we deactivated them and you're unaffected. He also thinks we're all affected, so we have to pretend we're on his side until we find the chance to strike. Do you think you can do this?" Olivia asked.

"I think so." Silver said. "I'll let you make the first move on striking, though."

"Good."

"So what do we do now?" I asked.

"We go back and get your brother. Monica, I'm sorry…but he is controlled by the Nanobots by now, without a doubt. We have to act soon before anything else happens…We'll call in Blaze so she can help us and then we'll make our first move." Olivia said.

** XxXxXxXx**

** MARK**

At first I thought I was in some sort of dream. I couldn't act on my own will. My own limbs wouldn't listen to me. I was forced to stare directly into Ice's smug face and await directions.

"Perfect. Now, Mark…your orders are to meet up with your sister. Bring her and the others back here and then we can get to work."

I nodded, although I wanted nothing to do with this man anymore. My legs began taking me down the hallway that Monica and the group had gone down. Along the way I tried in vain to regain control of myself…but the Nanobots were too powerful. There was no way I was escaping from this. I was a slave.

Monica exited the room I was pretty sure I was suppost to go in. She stood stiffly for a second before nodding in my direction and then slowly walking towards me, avoiding eye contact. The others followed.

We were just nearing the room when someone's arm wrapped tightly around my neck. I didn't react, the Nanobots did. In one smooth move I flipped Leo over my head and he landed hard on his back in front of me. I spun around in time to see Olivia throw a punch at my head. Her knuckles connected with my cheekbone but I hardly felt anything. I lashed out and sent her sprawling.

My next opponent was the dark hedgehog. He dodged my attack and slammed his foot into my knee, making my leg give out and I fell to the ground. While I was down Silver made me the focus of his power and I couldn't move an inch.

"I'm sorry, Mark…but we need you on our side." Monica whispered.

I did the only thing I could think of at the time. "THEY'RE NOT INFECTED!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. "THEY SOMEHOW RESISTED! THEY'RE-" My shout was cut off by my sister as she slapped a hand over my mouth.

"Spade, hurry!" She hissed.

The dark hedgehog drew something out of the bag that was slung over his shoulder and then a pounding pain exploded in my head and chest. It probably didn't last more than a few seconds, but it was like a few years to me. Just when I expected to die, it stopped. I expected the Nanobots to kick in and drag me up from the ground but nothing happened.

"Mark, get up. Quickly." Leo said.

I could move on my own again. I struggled to my feet, a headache pounding behind my ears. "What happened?" I whispered.

"We deactivated the Nanobots." Olivia said. "But before that you shouted for Ice. We need to get out of here before…" She trailed off as she caught sight of the darkness that was slowly swirling upwards in a corner.

"Crap," I hissed.

Mephiles lunged at the closest person, which was Monica. She jumped backwards and brought her foot down on his back, only to have it go straight through him and hit the ground hard. She shouted in surprise and stumbled backwards, giving him enough time to get back to his feet.

"I have orders to kill you." He hissed. "You will all die."

"Not if I can help it!" I shouted, swinging my fists at the back of his head only to have them go through as though he were just a mirage.

"You can't defeat me like that." Mephiles growled.

The door on the opposite end of the hall burst open and Ice, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles began running towards us. Olivia grabbed Monica's arm and began pulling her in the other direction. I followed without a second's hesitation as the others did the same.

"Stop them! Do not let them escape!" Ice roared.

We ran down the hall until we came to a bolted door. Spade slammed his foot into it and it burst open…to the outside.

"QUICKLY!" He shouted, jumping through.

We followed to stumble onto a burned wasteland. All around me was fire and flame, hardly a patch of un-scorched grass or clear air. I began to cough.

"Mark! Come on!" Monica's hand closed over my arm and we stumbled along after the group, careful not to step into a patch of fire. I dug my heels firmly into the ground and shouted, "MONICA!_ LOOK_!"

To our left was what seemed like a pillar of fire rising from the ground. It crashed onto the land, and I made out five fingers on the end of it. Fingers…? What was I seeing…?

Another pillar crashed nearby. With a feeling of dread I realized that the pillars were arms. Whatever was trying to pull itself out of the hell was enormous. Monica must have thought the same thing because she began backing up.

The fiery demon began to rise up among the smoke. I only got a small glance at it before Monica began pushing me away from a fireball that crashed into the ground nearby. In a shaking voice I asked, "What _is_ that thing?"

In an equally shaking voice that was lined with horror she answered, "Iblis,"

**XxXxXxXx**


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER 4 **

**MONICA**

Watching Iblis rise out of the flames only brought one thought to my head.

_God save us, everyone,_

_When we burn in the fires_

_Of a Thousand Suns_

_For the sins of our hand,_

_The sins of our tongue,_

_The sins of our fathers,_

_The sins of our young…_

Was this world really going to be demolished by this thing? Was it going to wipe out all life that had ever lived here? Was Ice somehow planning to bring this death to Earth?

I threw those thoughts away and focused on getting as far away from the demon as possible. Our group was a long ways off in the distance, waving at us and trying to get us to go faster. I shoved Mark forward. "Come on! This thing will kill us if you don't start moving!"

"Right…" He muttered. We began running as fast as we could towards everyone else.

A stream of fire blocked our path from them. I screamed and grabbed Mark before he could run into it. We both fell backwards, coughing and gasping. It was so hot I felt like my skin was melting off my face.

"Iblis! Rise! Rise and conquer what is rightfully ours!"

I turned to see Mephiles standing at the edge of the cliff where Iblis was struggling to escape from. He looked as though he wanted nothing but to burn; to burn and bring this demon fully to strength. It was so bright by the fires, I wondered how he was still able to stand and take a form near them.

As I watched, a river of flames spewed down from I guess what could have been Iblis' mouth and burned away the Dark. The scream that lingered was terrible. I had to clutch both hands over my ears and grind my teeth together to keep from joining that scream.

"Monica, get up! He's…he's…_LOOKING THIS WAY_!" Mark grabbed my arms and hoisted me to my feet.

I made the mistake of looking up towards Iblis' face. He was just fire…no visible features except two orbs of green light that were staring directly at me. Had Mephiles somehow been absorbed into the fire's hell? I figured I didn't want to find out. I turned and ran.

Another stream of fire exploded to my left. I didn't dare slow down. The group was coming closer…but they began to retreat once the fires grew closer.

That was about when Mark tripped, tripping me. I fell hard onto a rock and rolled onto my back just in time to see a fountain of fire come shooting towards me. My scream was lost in Mark's as we awaited our death. I just never thought it'd end quite like _this_…

At the last second someone stepped forward and the flames halted in their path. I blinked hard, making sure I was seeing things correctly.

"Get out of here!" Blaze shouted, countering the fire with her own.

I wasted no time in scrambling up and running towards the rest of my comrades. Blaze flipped backwards out of range of Iblis and joined us.

"How'd you get here?" I demanded.

"They called me in. I might not be at full strength though…what those Nanobots did was incredible." Blaze sighed. "You're lucky I got here when I did. What-"

She got cut off as Silver threw his arms around her. "I'm so glad you're here!"

"Yeah, me too. Let go, we've got a fire demon to destroy!"

"Just how do we do that, exacally?" I asked.

"Olivia, where's the Master Emerald?" Leo asked.

"It's…back in the lab. I don't know if I can reach it before Iblis destroys this whole area." Olivia shook her head. "But together we have all the Emeralds. Most of them might be absorbed into Iblis…but if they're still powerful enough Silver might be able to do something."

"I'll need Sonic and Shadow." Silver squeaked, casting another glance at the fire. "I can't do this myself."

"They're possessed by the Nanobots." I reminded him. "You're the only one who can do anything at the moment."

"What if the power of the Emeralds can short out the Nanobots?" Mark asked.

"We might have to take that risk." Olivia sighed. "But right now our main focus is on the Master Emerald."

I reached into the scorched but otherwise intact bag I had and brought the yellow Emerald out, feeling its power flood my soul. I felt like taking on the world and succeeding. "Silver, come on. Together both you and me might have a chance to get the Master Emerald out."

He nodded nervously, but followed me as I ran back towards where we had wanted to escape from not that long ago. Iblis followed our progress, never taking its eyes off of us. Before long, realization clicked and it swung out at us, nearly setting my bag on fire. I ditched it anyway; I needed less weight.

Iblis gave a mighty roar and as we neared the lab, a shadow moved. I only halted long enough to see Mephiles standing as though he were lost; the Nanobots burned away in Iblis' intense heat. Unfortunately, he still knew we meant to stop the demon from rising.

**XxXxXxXx**

**MARK**

Spade pulled the light blue Emerald from his quills and handed it to Leo. "Just in case. I figured if I died at least it'd be in good hands."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I'm going to kill Ice." Spade said before running after Monica and Silver.

"Is he crazy?" Olivia shouted.

"Spade!" I grabbed the Emerald from Leo and bolted after him. I ignored the shouts of the group behind me and focused my attention on Iblis, making sure it didn't plan any sudden movements that might be the death of me.

Ice, Sonic, Tails, Shadow and Knuckles were still by the lab's door. I watched as Monica and Silver slipped past them and into the building, but….was that a shadow that moved after them? Impossible…

I tore my attention away from that. Monica had an Emerald. Both her and Silver would be protected. I turned my attention back on Spade as he confronted the group.

Instantly Shadow jumped at him, but Spade was ready. In one smooth move he leapt over Shadow's head and landed behind him, kicking out and striking Shadow's legs just below the knee. He collapsed, giving Spade enough time to aim a blow at the back of his head.

"Spade!" I shouted.

Spade glanced at me, giving me a look that plainly showed his disapproval of my following. Unfortunately, I had distracted him in the one crucial moment.

Knuckles leapt up and slammed both fists into his back, causing him to fly away from Shadow and skid heavily across the flaming ground. The smell of burning fur and the metallic smell of blood greeted my nostrils as I ran to his side.

"Spade!_ Spade_! Are you all right?"

He struggled to his knees, wincing from the injuries taken to his back and burns. I reached out to try to get him back on his feet when Tails landed his shoe squarely on my chest, knocking the air out of my lungs and driving me backwards. My arm seared with pain as I landed on burning grass.

I gritted my teeth together and gripped my arm tightly, forcing myself to pay attention and keep track of the Emerald that had skidded off into a patch of intact grass.

Sonic had approached Spade, kicking him back down to the ground and planting a foot firmly in the middle of his back. As far as I could tell, he didn't struggle. Ice drew something from his pocket and slowly approached him.

I instantly knew what he planned and swore to never let it happen. I dived to the right and my fingers closed around the Emerald. And then something happened. The jewel pulsed with light and power surged through my arm to my injured one, healing my burn instantly. I stood and ran towards my fallen comrade.

"No, Ice! Leave him alone!" I shouted. The power surged through me again, making me feel invincible. There was no way I could lose.

"Or you'll what?" Ice sneered, tapping the edge of the syringe filled with Nanobots. "You'll kill me?"

"_I_ won't," I growled. The power building inside of me was growing. So was my hatred towards him. I pointed slightly to the right of him and a stream of blue light narrowly missed his arm, slamming into the lab's side and leaving a scorched mark worse than what fire could leave. Ice's expression of shock was clear on his face. "the Emerald will."

"Get him!" Ice shouted.

I turned to see my friends running at me, completely abandoning Spade. I dulled the power flowing through me and allowed it to hit my targets. They collapsed, unconscious but not dead.

"Now…" I turned my attention back on Ice. "surrender or I will kill you."

"You wish." Ice spat.

Before I could react, another column of fire slammed just to the left of me. I managed to escape safely, but I didn't know about the others.

**XxXxXxXx**

**MONICA**

We were being followed. There was no doubt about that. All around us tiny fires sprang to life, filling the air with smoke. Luckily, the Emerald was purifying the air around us and keeping us able to breathe and continue on. Twice we came to an area of a hallway where the floor had collapsed in on itself, leaving only a fiery pit. Once a powerful shaking sensation tore through the lab, threatening to bring the entire thing down on our heads. The Emerald protected us from the worst.

The Emerald began pulsing in my hand as we neared the Master Emerald. I pointed down another hallway and said, "That way. We're getting close."

Before we could take another step darkness swirled upwards, blocking our path. Mephiles stood firmly in our way and said, "I can't let you do this."

"Don't you know what you're doing to this world?" I asked. "Don't you see the damage you've helped do?"

"It's not damage. It's justice." Mephiles hissed. "Justice on the beings that destroyed us in the first place. We were meant to rule…but then they came. We have been growing more powerful over time...now it's time to re-claim this planet as our own. We would have succeeded sooner had that scientist not interfered and corrupted my thoughts."

"We can't let you destroy this planet." Silver spoke up.

"Just give me the Emerald and I'll spare you…for now."

"You want it?" I asked, holding the Emerald in front of me. "Come get it."

It glowed brighter than the sun, blinding both me and Mephiles. Silver ducked his head as the light pierced every shadow in the hallway, forcing Mephiles out or risk being destroyed. I grabbed Silver's arm and we ran down the hall, away from Mephiles' screams of pain and away from the fires that were starting to spread.

Fear gripped my insides momentarily but the Emerald's power drove it away. I was reminded of what had happened not that long ago…when we had first met Ice…

"Monica, in there!" Silver dragged me to a halt and pointed to a door. I gripped the handle and opened it, my gaze settling on the giant gem in the middle of the room.

"How are we suppost to carry this thing?" I demanded, trying to get a good grip on it to be able to lift it up and out.

"Here…" Silver came around the side of it and together we managed to lift it and get it out the door and down most of the first hall. The yellow Emerald I was holding was still glowing brightly, keeping any threats away for the moment. Although I wasn't so sure Mephiles was around anymore.

A piece of burned plaster collapsed down from the roof in front of me. I carefully made my way around it and Silver followed my lead.

Another earthquake shook the ground, forcing me to stop or risk dropping the Emeralds. But before long it became apparent that the quake wasn't going to stop anytime soon and it was only going to get more destructive.

"Let's go!" I shouted.

"MONICA!" Silver screamed, pointing behind us at the far end of the hall.

The roof was beginning to collapse, slowly following the hall. Before long, we would be buried if we didn't escape in time.

I gripped both Emeralds as tight as I could and we began to run…or at least run as best as we could when fires were popping up everywhere and a magnitude 6.7 earthquake was at hand.

The exit was in sight. Light from the outside fires lit up the cracks around the door.

**XxXxXxXx**

**MARK**

I had unconsciously put shields around my friends as the fire slammed into the ground. They were safe. I let out a sigh of relief and turned my attention to Ice again.

And before I could do anything, a shadow moved among the light and took a form as it lunged for my nemesis. Mephiles tightened his arm around Ice's throat, screaming at him the entire time, "You corrupted me! You corrupted Iblis! You must die for what you've done!"

I was about to react to knock Mephiles away when a hand closed over my ankle. I glanced down to see Spade slowly struggle to his knees, gasping though the smoke, "No…he'll finish him. Destroy Iblis…"

I nodded, turning my attention on the fire demon. Its eyes were no longer green, but a dark red. I tried but couldn't send a stream of energy powerful enough to even faze it.

That was when a shout of victory caught my attention and I turned to see Ice as he tried desperately to escape the fire that was burning below the slab of land he was struggling to stay atop of. Mephiles grabbed his arm and twisted it sharply, a crazed look in his eyes.

The most chilling and terrifying moment of my life happened next. Ice glanced in my direction, eyes locking with mine, before he toppled over and into the flames in a loud hiss.

Mephiles' laugh of triumph rang out over the crackling of the fires. With an almost gleeful shout, he dived after Ice into the flames. Iblis' eyes slowly changed to green again as he absorbed the dark demon and stared at me.

Before I could do anything, the door to the lab burst open and Monica and Silver rushed out, each of them carrying one side of the Master Emerald.

The Emerald I was clutching in my hand vibrated and then floated out of my grasp, taking all its power with it. It zipped towards the Master Emerald and began circling it. Monica's did the same.

I grabbed Spade's arm and dragged him to his feet, throwing his arm around the back of my neck and keeping him upright. "Ok, man…this is it…"

Iblis gave a long howl as a flash of light exploded from its fiery body and the other Emeralds joined their master. They began to spin faster and faster around the Master Emerald, glowing brighter and brighter. Monica dropped her end of it and backed up slightly while Silver drew closer, his silvery fur and quills turning golden.

In a blinding flash of light, he took to his super form and flew upwards at Iblis' eye level.

"Mark, help me!" Monica shouted, dragging Sonic by his feet towards the Emerald.

The flash that took place nearly blinded me. I rubbed my burning eyes and struggled to regain sight, finally making out another golden form.

"Thanks, guys." Sonic said, leaving the Emeralds to join Silver.

"Mark, you ok?" Monica demanded. Her hand closed over my arm. "The Emerald's shorting out the Nanobots. Help me get Shadow near it."

I tore my hands away from my eyes and blinked hard. I still had sight, but it was mostly blocked by a giant green blob that hovered wherever I tried to look. "Give me a sec, Monica…" I muttered.

"We don't _have_ a second!" Monica screamed, her shout almost getting lost in Iblis' as he knew he was being challenged.

I squeezed my eyes shut again and opened them wide, the blob slowly disappearing. I made out Shadow lying a few feet in front of me.

"I can stand." Spade growled.

I left him and dragged Shadow towards the Emerald, keeping my eyes shut the entire time. An equally blinding flash overtook my vision and I fell backwards.

"We did it." Monica sighed.

"We need to get away from here. There's no telling what destruction will befall this place." Blaze grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet. "Get Spade away from here. I'll revive Knuckles and Tails."

"I'll help." Monica said.

I cast a glance at Iblis, catching sight of small glowing forms rocketing around its head . it let out a frustrated roar that seemed to shake the air.

"Can the Emerald heal you?" I asked Spade as we made our way away from the battle.

"You'll need it to heal the others first."

Once I was sure we were back a safe distance I said, "Stay here, I'll be back."

"What, were you planning to die?" Spade growled again, wincing slightly as he sat down heavily.

I ignored him and set off towards where Monica, Blaze, Tails and Knuckles were busy gathering up the Emeralds. "Need a hand?"

"Take these and get away from here!" Blaze threw two of the Emeralds at me and I barely managed to catch them. I turned and ran the way I had come.

"Here, Spade, take this." I pushed one of the Emeralds into his hand. There was a soft glow that briefly surrounded his body and he sighed with relief.

"You would not believe how badly the smoke stings wounds." He hissed.

"I'll take your word for it, then." I turned to see the others catching up, Blaze and Knuckles both carrying the Master Emerald. Iblis gave a mighty roar and swung one of its fiery fists at one of the small golden lights, missing and instead sending the lab up in a bright fireball of flame. No chance of the Nanobots ever coming back. Both the creator and creation were destroyed today.

**XxXxXxXx**

**MONICA**

"Shouldn't they be doing something by now?" I asked.

We had been sitting away from the battle for a good ten minuets now, and the only thing that seemed to be happening was a lot of dodging. I cast a glance at Mark.

"They should have destroyed Iblis by now." Blaze said, almost too quietly to hear. She stood and retrieved one of the Emeralds, tossing it to Spade. "Get up there and help."

Spade nodded, standing beside the other Emeralds. I barely managed to look away before a blinding light flashed from the gems and Spade shot off towards the threat. Mark handed me one of the Emeralds. "We should help too."

"What can we do? I can barely manage to attack. And even if I do, it's not going to do anything against a demon like Iblis." I took the Emerald anyway, power flaring through my body.

"We're not going to fight Iblis." Blaze said.

"Then what are we going to do?"

"We're going to distract Mephiles. He's trying desperately to keep Shadow, Sonic and Silver away from his master, barely succeeding. We need to distract him so they can destroy Iblis." Knuckles retrieved another Emerald and handed it to Mark.

"How does he keep coming back? I swear I saw him burn to death…twice!"

"Both demons are one. They live off of each other's life force and feed off of their power. If we kill one, the other won't be far behind." Tails gathered up the rest of the Emeralds, save the Master Emerald.

"Then let's go!" I shouted.

Mark and I ran towards the fire, two Emeralds each clutched in our hands. The power in me was extraordinary. I felt like I could defeat Iblis myself. I felt it gather in my palms, and using the Emeralds to magnify my power shot twin streams of energy from my hands. Iblis roared in shock that someone like me could actually land a hit and it swung one of its fiery arms down at me. I jumped out of the way, attacking again.

Blaze was at my side, countering Iblis' fire with her own. If you say you can't fight fire with fire, you were wrong. Blaze's was magnified by the Emeralds' power, however slightly. It still did a significant amount of damage.

"_No_!"

Something slammed into my side and I skidded in the grass, nearly falling in one of the fire pits. I turned onto my back to see Mephiles running at me again, a look of pure hatred and anger in his eyes. I rolled to the left as his foot lashed out at my face, narrowly missing me.

"YOU SHALL NOT INTERFERE!" He roared, lashing out again and catching the side of my face. My nose broke, but the power of the Emeralds I was holding healed it instantly. I leapt up and countered with Chaos energy, catching Mephiles in the side and sending him stumbling back. He recovered quickly, coming at me again.

Before he could do anything, Iblis gave a loud scream. It wasn't a threatening roar this time…definitely a dying scream. Mephiles stopped dead in his tracks and stared up at the giant demon. I couldn't help it. I looked too.

What I saw sent me running.

Iblis was falling over, as though its fire was freezing and it was dying. I ran as fast as I could, dodging puddles of fire and jumping over various debris. A giant heat wave descended over me and I glanced backwards to see Iblis' head crash just a few inches from my heels. I didn't stop running even then.

Only when met up with Knuckles and Tails at the Master Emerald did I stop. And even then I wasn't very far from the dying demon.

A long, wailing cry grabbed my attention and I turned back towards where Iblis lay, slowly fading away into small fires that were extinguished by what seemed like nothing. Mephiles was trying in vain to craw away from where Shadow, Silver, Spade and Sonic had him surrounded. Mark joined their blockade and I began slowly making my way towards them as well.

"I was forced to! I had to! We were one!" Mephiles was shouting, cowering away from the bright glow emitted from the hedgehogs' Super forms. "I didn't want this to happen!"

"Then why didn't you stop it?" Shadow growled.

"I couldn't! I couldn't!"

"Spade?" Sonic turned towards him. "I'll give you the pleasure of destroying him."

"I don't think I can by myself." Spade said after a few seconds. "He's still clinging to Iblis' dying life force. If we wait long enough, he'll just die out. Look."

Sure enough, Mephiles' dark form was starting to flicker out and then come back, only with less strength every time. "No! _No_!"

I held the Emeralds I was holding in front of me, letting their light drive away the darkness in front of me. Mephiles was trapped and he seemed to know it. He stared around, a wild look in his eyes, but saw nowhere to run. In a loud scream of defeat…he slowly faded away.

**XxXxXxXx**

**MARK**

"So there's no chance of Ice bringing those Nanobots to Earth anymore, is there?" I asked nervously.

"Of course not." Monica replied, slugging my arm playfully.

We were all gathered at Sonic's house, where we had been once before. Back on our first adventure a few year ago. It seemed so far away now; the adventures we had when we were younger.

Already the land was healing itself with the power of the Chaos Emeralds. Knuckles had somehow used the Master Emerald to use the smaller ones to put power into the ground to heal itself, extinguishing the fires and even cleaning most of the air. While most of this was going on Monica and I tried as hard as we could to get the ashes out of our clothes, skin and hair. We didn't get very far in that.

"It's like some sort of demented hair dye." Monica growled, twirling a lock of her once blonde hair that was now coal black. "I just hope it comes out."

"I'm sorry for dragging you all into this." Shadow sighed, casting a glance out the nearby window. "It all began with me."

"Technically, it was Ice. But he's gone now." I realized for the first time that the statement was true. Ice wasn't locked up; he was truly gone. Forever. There was no way he could try to destroy the worlds again. We were safe!

"Now the question is how we send you all back." Sonic said.

"We use the power of the Emeralds." Silver suggested. "That's what Shadow did before."

"But after they're completed healing the land they'll be drained of power." Spade reminded them. "There could be as much as a two week wait until they're back at full power."

"That's ok!" I said quickly. "I like it here."

"You won't after spending a week with me." Spade pulled a bag of what I guessed would be Mobius' version of potato chips out and flicked a few crumbs at me. I flung my arms up over my head and waited until he ran out of chips before taking a pillow and lobbing it at his head, missing and taking out the bag of chips.

"PILLOW FIGHT!" Silver cheered before taking a pillow straight to his eyes.

Monica shoved Tails off a large cushion and picked it up, brandishing it like a club. I laughed and grabbed the other, leaving Tails nowhere to sit. He took cover behind the couch before grabbing a pillow and joining in on the insane fight.

"Come on, Shadow!" Sonic said, chucking a pillow at Monica and knocking her backwards.

Shadow rolled his eyes and expertly dodged a pillow, as though these things happened daily around Sonic's house. Then, without warning, he grabbed a pillow out of Sonic's grasp and threw it hard at Spade, making him fall backwards behind the couch and out the window.

Silence descended upon the room so quickly it was almost comical. I couldn't help myself…I burst out laughing.

Everyone quickly joined in. Even Shadow couldn't resist but smile evilly. I went to the window and pulled Spade back inside. "You're not gonna let him get away with that, are you?"

"Just wait…this is going to be great." Spade promised, an evil tone to his voice.

The pillow fight escalated to a pillow _war_ in about 5.398 seconds.

**XxXxXxXx**

**MONICA**

The Emeralds were drained of power just enough so we couldn't return to Earth within that day. If you ask me, Knuckles did that on purpose so we could say our last goodbyes. We stayed another few days until the Emeralds were at full power again.

During that time, Spade got revenge on Shadow by throwing a water balloon at him. Don't ask how that turned out. I'll just say that we had to break out the water guns after the first assault.

I was forced out of my memories from the last few days by Knuckles, holding one of the Chaos Emeralds. He handed it to Sonic. "Time to go."

"Bye, Monica!" Silver ran forward and wrapped his arms around my middle. I patted him awkwardly on the head, saying, "Um..ok…bye, Silver. I'll miss you."

"Can you visit?"

"I can't. You probably can."

"I will, then!"

"See ya. Hopefully soon and not during another terrible crisis." Spade winked. "I have a feeling we can learn a lot from each other."

"Same." I nodded.

Sonic nudged me. "Are we leaving or not?"

"Right, yes. Sorry." I cast another glance at the group behind me.

Blaze and Tails waved. Shadow nodded coldly in my direction and Knuckles gave me a small smile. "See ya soon."

"CHAOS CONTROL!"

We were standing in our basement again, surrounded by familiar walls. Mark turned to me and said, "Just like before."

"Take care." Sonic said, giving us a thumbs up. Mark slapped him a high five just before he vanished in another flash of light.

Footsteps came from overhead, hard worried ones. I began to wonder how long we had really been gone from our mom and dad's sight.

The door was flung open and they raced down the steps, stopping and staring at us like we were some sort of alien. My dad acted first.

"Where were you? What happened? You've been missing for nearly a week!"

"Sorry, we were only saving a world." I said casually.

The moment of silence was broken by sobs coming from our mother. She ran towards us and enveloped us both in a giant hug. "I can't begin to tell you how worried I've been! How we've both been!"

"Mom…" Mark muttered.

"Don't ever do that again, do you hear me?"

"Mom, I can't breathe!"

Our mom backed off slightly. "Tell us everything that happened."

And so we did. We owed them an explanation.

**XxXxXxXx**

**MARK**

Over the summer months we found a way to pass the time. At night on Saturdays we would sneak off into the woods behind our house and wait by a twisted old tree.

Usually within a half hour they would show up again. We would spend a good half of the night out in the woods, joking and telling stories and trying to scare each other. We learned a great deal from Spade, like where he had been before joining Ice. He learned a great deal from us and Earth, like mosquitoes were absolutely freaking annoying.

That was how our summer and most of next year went. But we were growing up. We had to find jobs and work sometimes late at night. In the mornings we would come out in the woods to find notes left by our friends, wishing us luck in our lives and telling us what's been going on with them. We began to do the same. We kept in contact with the visitors to our world. Until they return again…

_God save us, everyone,_

_When we burn in the fires_

_Of a Thousand Suns._

_For the sins of our hand,_

_The sins of our tongue,_

_The sins of our father,_

_The sins of our young…_

_God bless us everyone,_

_We're a broken people_

_Living under loaded gun_

_And it can't be outfought,_

_It can't be outdone,_

_It can't be outmatched_

_It can't be outrun_

_No,_

_And when I close my eyes tonight, two symphonies of blinding light_

_God bless us everyone, we're but broken people living under loaded gun._

_Oh,_

_Like memories in cold decay,_

_Transmissions echoing away_

_Far from the world of you and I,_

_Where oceans bleed into the sky!_

**XxXxXxXx**

**'Tis the ending. If you haven't opened another tab and searched The Catalyst on YouTube yet, do it! That's the song above these notes. Weird name, yes, you thought it was called A Thousand Suns, didn't you? That's the album name. On second thought, just listen to the whole album in order. It tells a cool story. **

**And Olivia, Leo, and all those other guys made it back to Earth safely. I forgot to tell that. :/ **

**Now Mark and Monica's epic story is mostly finished. **

**If you wish otherwise, please tell me.**

**Spade may be used in other FanFics, supershadower! Don't freak out on me yet!**

**And Controlled Chaos Productions, thank you for being patient. Your story will be on shortly.**

**Everyone else… NO FLAMES! Flame me and I revive Iblis and send it after you! Yes, I know I completely screwed up the whole Sonic 2006 storyline, but hey, I hated the fact that-**

**MONICA: Shut up, spoiler! Just ignore her, folks. She has to get started on another story.**

**Hasta la Vista, Readers!**

**Lordoftheghostking28**


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